What our children think of Lidice

The historical village of Lidice is a memorial to commemorate the child victims from this time Czech village that were murdered by the German Nazis. They have an annual event, “The International Children’s Exhibition of Fine Arts,” a competition of children’s art projects from all over the world. Our children had send pictures as well and since it happens to be right around the corner from us the parents went with their children together for the official opening ceremony. Especially with our situation in Germany we felt it was good for us to understand more about this event in history.

To our surprise the event did not so much address what happened in the past, it was just a happy children’s day with different activities. It seems as if most people do not really want to remember the terrible crimes of the past and do not want to have to deal with real things that plague the human race.

When we were standing by the bronze sculpture, a life size reproduction of the victims, there was a tourist guide who explained how hard it is to imagine the great suffering that these children went through.

I would have liked to jump up and let all the people there know that my sisters and all the other children of Klosterzimmern and Wörnitz are suffering something similar right now!

Back then they destroyed innocent lives, but is it different today? I was not executed, but I had to suffer being separated from my parents.

Do the authorities want to extinguish the Twelve Tribes?

It is so sad that Germany is repeating its terrible history.

Are there not still people with the courage to stand up against injustice?

Besorah, daughter of Abiyah and Rekah (age 15).

Read about the Schott family, which includes links to videos of Besorah speaking. Here is an older picture of her (in blue) and her sisters…they are still in captivity…no doubt being “Germanized.” (See below.)

Here are the facts she learned of that terrible time.

On May 28th, 2014 I went to the Czech memorial in Lidice. I was very shocked about what I learned about the terrible history of this village.

72 years ago a German SS leader was assassinated by two men. When the Gestapo searched for the murderers they found some clues leading to Lidice. Without having any certain facts they executed a cruel judgment on the population of Lidice. All the men older than 14 were shot, all the women transported to a concentration camp, and almost all the children gassed to death, except a few chosen ones (that seemed suitable for Germanization) were brought to German foster homes.

The few children that were left suffered a great shock and wanted to go back to their parents, but they had no chance. The wrath of the Germans against these Czech men that were supposedly hiding in Lidice was so great that they decided to eradicate every trace of this village and even the name from the map. All the buildings were torn down until not one stone was left on another. They even opened the graves and dug out the bones – there was absolutely nothing left from the village.

Note: Surprisingly, the German commander of the slaughter at Lidice, Max Rostock, actually lived until 1986 in West Germany, suffering no legal consequences from his government. He died in Mannheim, Germany, age 76 years and one day.

His post-war Czech trial resulted in his conviction and the death sentence, which remarkably was not carried out. He was released to the West German government. AttorneyPavelBarbaš said the following in the summer of 1951:

“Every decent and honestmanhas to ask himself: How is it possiblethatfascistwar criminalsare acquittedand are released?How is itpossiblethat anyonecanallow that the hardlypastand stilllivingteachingsof the SecondWorld War have gone into oblivion?“